Mid-Season Brawl Preview

9 June 2017 10:05

Twelve of the best teams from around the world are gearing up to contest the Heroes of the Storm (HotS) Mid-Season Brawl, all seeking to take home a $100,000 winning share of the $250,000 prize pool and the illustrious championship trophy.

The Format

The tournament is split into two sections with the group stage taking place in Stockholm, Sweden, beginning on 10th June, followed by the play-offs in Jönköping, Sweden, from 17th June.

The group stage sees twelve teams split into two groups of six, battling it out in round-robin, best-of-two, five-verses-five matches. Teams receive three points for a win and one point for a draw. Each team plays each other twice, and is awarded a bonus point if they win both games against the same opposition.

The top two teams from each group qualify directly for the semi-finals in the upper bracket play-offs, whilst the teams finishing 3rd and 4th progress into the Losers’ Round One lower bracket. The sides finishing 5th and 6th in the group stage are automatically eliminated from the competition. The play-offs are a best-of-five double elimination, leading to a best-of-seven grand final.

Teams will be fighting it out playing the following HotS battlegrounds: Battlefield of Eternity, Cursed Hollow, Dragon Shire, Infernal Shrines, Sky Temple, Tomb of the Spider Queen, Towers of Doom, Braxis Holdout and Warhead Junction.

The Groups

Group A

Fnatic

CE

MVP Black

Roll20 eSports

Nomia

DeadlyKittens

Group A is packed with quality, including the number one seeds from both Europe and China, and the second seeds from Korea and North America. MVP Black are one of the pre-tournament favourites after qualifying for the Mid-Season brawl with a 3-0 victory over MVP Miracle – their sister team - in the HGC Korea Play-Off Finals. They secured that win with victories in the Dragon Shire, Tomb of the Spider Queen and Battlefield of Eternity battlegrounds, reaching the grand final after three consecutive 3-1 victories over GG, Tempest and Mighty in the play-offs. The Korean team lost 3-1 to Fnatic, Europe’s top seeds, in November’s Fall Championship, and no doubt they’ll be seeking revenge this time around. Their Mid-Season brawl team consists of Won Ho "KyoCha" Jeong, Tae Jun "merryday" Yi, Jin Woo "Reset", Jung Hyuk "Sake" Lee and Oon Sung "Ttsst" Kang.

Group B

L5

Tempo Storm

Team Dignitas

eStar Gaming

Soul Torturers

RED Candids

L5, Korea’s number one seed, are favourites to top Group B after winning November’s Fall Championship. Jin Su ‘NaCHoJin’ Park is one player to look out for in particular, having impressed since joining the team in June 2016. Their team also includes Jeong Ha "Jeongha" Lee, Do Jun "Noblesse" Chae, Seung-Chul "sCsC" Kim and Seung Won "Swoy" Kim, and they qualified for the Mid-Season Brawl with a perfect 14-0 record to top the 2017 Global Championship Phase One South Korea Pro League. They’ve also finished 2nd in the Global Championship Phase One Eastern Clash this year.

The Prize Pool

The prize pool for the teams finishing in the top three is shown below, and prizes are yet to be announced for 4th-12th place.

1st place - $100,000
2nd place - $50,000
3rd place - $20,000

The tournament’s first game sees Fnatic take on DeadlyKittens in Group A and, with the showpiece HGC Finals to come in November, teams will be eager to impress in what is sure to be a HotS Mid-Season Brawl packed with excitement, quality, and gaming of the highest quality.